Former UFC talent Sage Northcutt experienced a pretty brutal loss in his ONE Championship debut, suffering a 29-second knockout at the hands of kickboxing specialist Cosmo Alexandre.

This tough setback left Northcutt with serious facial injuries that needed to be corrected over the course of a nine-hour surgery.

“Twenty five seconds in, really, he got stalked — Cosmo, who’s an amazing kickboxer and a big, strong guy, came out and pressed the action right off the bat,” Urijah Faber said of Sage Northcutt on The MMA Hour, detailing his pupil’s injuries (via transcript MMA Fighting). “Right off the bat, did like a couple of stutter steps, switch-step fakes to kind of corral Sage in. Sage went one way and then the other way, first time in a ring, and literally gets manhunted with the nastiest punch and crushes his whole face.

“Basically splintered his cheek into 30 pieces and broke his orbital bone. He had eight different fractures and literally they had to pick the pieces of the bone fragments out — 30 different pieces out of his face.”

Speaking on Instagram on Thursday, Sage Northcutt provided fans with an update of his own. The eternally chipper karate specialist seems to be in good spirits.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxyIBatjpc2/

“Still in the hospital recovering in Singapore getting better,” Sage Northcutt wrote. “Thanks for all the prayers!”

Northcutt left the UFC on a three-fight win-streak, composed of two decision wins over Michel Quiñones and Thibault Gouti, and a TKO defeat of Zak Ottow.

Here’s hoping the young ONE Championship star makes a full and speedy recovery!

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 5/23/2019.